Shortly after the eruption of the second intifada, a veteran senior Israeli intelligence officer, Brig. Gen. (Res.) Yossi Ben-Ari, was appointed to examine whether PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat had planned in advance to ignite the violent flames and actually did so.  His conclusions: Arafat did not. His report was never shared with Israeli decision makers, and the narrative regarding Arafat's role in "launching" the second intifada became a part of the fabric of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict's set of conventional wisdoms.

A link to Ben-Ari's Haaretz article (Hebrew): https://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/.premium-1.9184053 Contact Ori: [email protected] Donate to APN: https://peacenow.org/donate